Welcome to Hyperion Records, an independent British classical label devoted to presenting high-quality recordings of music of all styles and from all periods from the twelfth century to the twenty-first.

Hyperion offers both CDs, and downloads in a number of formats. The site is also available in several languages.

Please use the dropdown buttons to set your preferred options, or use the checkbox to accept the defaults.

Don't show me this message again

Sonatina 'ad usum infantis Madeline M* Americanae', BV268

Introduction

The Sonatina ‘ad usum infantis Madeline M* Americanae’ (No 3, 1915) is dedicated to a girl of probably eighteen who was a friend of Busoni’s elder son, Benvenuto. It consists of five movements, of which the third is a march and the fifth a polonaise later used as the concluding number of the opera Arlecchino (1914–16). Busoni may have intended it for the harpsichord (‘pro clavicimbalo [sic] composita’)—he had purchased a specimen from Arnold Dolmetsch in 1910—but it is usually played on the piano (only two of the fifteen or so recordings use the harpsichord).

Recordings

Marc-André Hamelin is indisputably the king of Busoni pianists. This generously priced triple album offers most of Busoni’s mature works and the widest selection of pieces from the Klavierübung so far recorded, many of them for the first time.» More